Barn Visitors
After being transferred from Birbhum, I settled down at Dow Hill as the Director of a century-old training institute. Dow Hill is a small place situated amidst clouds on top of a mountain in the Eastern Himalayas. The place is well known for evil spirits and is listed as one of the most haunted places in India. For marketing, I regularly came down to Kurseong town, which is 5 km downhill. Kurseong is a small and beautiful town. The whole market is situated on both sides of the Siliguri–Darjeeling Road. The market is unique for having the heritage toy train track running alongside the road. Kurseong is also known as the Switzerland of India.
In a small town, when you walk regularly, you get to know everyone at every step. Whenever I visited the town, a visit to Ashok Agarwala and his sons, Tanuj and Nikhil, was a must. They were of great help to me in Kurseong. Dhiraj and Vikas were the other two who were just one phone call away. I used to regularly purchase medicines from Hanutram-Lekhram Medical Store. Two brothers, Rudra Narayan Agarwala and Shiva Kumar Agarwal, along with Viresh Agarwal (son of Shiva Kumar), were the owners of the medical store. After two or three visits to the medical store, they soon became close to me.
One day, while I was standing in the medical store to purchase medicines, two birds flew above my head. At first sight, with their deeply forked tails, I identified them as swallows. For further identification, I took pictures through my Samsung S6 mobile phone. Soon, Viresh Agarwala told me that there was a nest of these birds in the store. A cup-shaped mud nest was found near the ceiling. One of the parents was incubating the eggs in the nest. Viresh was kind enough to provide a stool for me to stand on and take pictures of the bird from a close distance. After a detailed enquiry, Viresh told me that these birds swarm across the entire Kurseong Bazaar during the month of February. They build nests in buildings throughout the bazaar, raise their nestlings, and leave the place by August. This pair of swallows had been coming to his medical store for the last three years. In the coming days, I closely followed these birds, which ultimately led me to the world of the Barn visitors.
Hanutram-Lekhram Medical Store is one of the oldest medical stores in the whole of North Bengal. Hanutram and Lekhram were the two brothers after whom the store was named. Initially, it was opened as a general store in the year 1865 by Shri Chanduram Agarwala, son of Shri Hanutram. In 1941, the general store was converted into a medical store. The birds have been coming to this store for many years, probably for more than a century. The birds' droppings were falling below the nest, creating problems for the owners in their day-to-day business. Some years back, the owners decided to place a paper board below the nest to prevent the droppings from falling directly on customers. The birds stopped coming for some years. As Viresh told me, the birds had started coming again for the last two years. This time, they had built the nest in a different place.
I became a regular visitor to the medical store. For documentation, I clicked pictures using my Samsung S6 mobile phone. Initially, the birds were restless when I got closer to take pictures. After some time, they seemed to permit me to click pictures unless I got too close. After going through the literature, I identified the birds as Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica gutturalis). During the breeding season, this race is distributed from Nepal to Assam in the Eastern Himalayas. Another race of Barn Swallow, H. rustica rustica, is distributed from Baluchistan to Nepal. Both these races spend their winter in the Indian subcontinent, where it is difficult to distinguish them unless they are in hand.
In 2009, during my IGNFA tour to Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, I had taken some pictures of Hirundo rustica rustica. A shopkeeper in Mandi also offered me a stool to take pictures of the Barn Swallow. Mandi was similar to Kurseong. Both are old towns. In both places, the rustica and gutturalis races of Barn Swallow visit in thousands and build nests in shops and houses. Mandi is in the Western Himalayas, whereas Kurseong is in the Eastern Himalayas. In both places, the shopkeepers were kind enough to allow me to click pictures by offering me a stool. After wintering in the Indian subcontinent, these birds swarm the Himalayan towns in February, build nests, and leave the Himalayas by August. Building nests in shops and houses is considered a good omen by the local people.
Barn Swallows are also found in Europe. This species nests in barns (a barn means a stable or granary in English). Hence, they are known as the Barn Swallow. In India too, they nest in houses and marketplaces near humans to provide protection for their young ones from predators.
I started visiting the medical store regularly once a week, not for medicines but for the birds. Viresh Agarwala showed me a small opening made in the shutter to allow the birds to come in and go out. He was disappointed that the birds were not using the opening. Even though Viresh had created the opening in the shutter, the birds did not know what was outside it. They would not use it unless they felt safe. During my diploma training at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, we were taught in one class that elephants in Rajaji were not using the underpasses. Scientists then tried placing elephant dung under the underpasses, after which the elephants started using them. I explained this to Viresh and asked him to smear some swallow droppings around the opening in the door shutter. By doing so, the swallows would be convinced that the opening could be used because some other swallow had already used it. To my surprise, Viresh told me during my next visit that the birds had started using the opening in the door shutter. He was relieved that the birds no longer needed to wait every morning for someone to open the shutter.
By the end of April, the young ones were chattering and flying throughout the shop. In spite of the day-to-day busy business, the shopkeepers witnessed the beginning of the young Barn Swallows' lives. The attention of most customers purchasing medicines was drawn towards them. Apart from selling medicines, the shop was also distributing a small dose of smiles to every customer.
After a week, when I visited again, Viresh told me, "The birds have gone." He said, "The shop is empty without them. We have to wait till next February." For almost a month, I did not go to the medical store. In June, when I again went to purchase some medicines, Viresh told me that the birds had returned and had a new brood of chicks. There were five chicks in the nest, yet to open their eyes. Had the same pair produced a second brood, or were these new pairs? For the answer, I consulted Shri Dhananjay Mohan, IFS, Additional PCCF (Wildlife), Uttarakhand. He had taught bird watching to most of the IFS officers in India. He opined that, being passerines like the House Sparrow, Barn Swallows might brood twice a year if food was available in plenty. Google Baba confirmed that Barn Swallows brood twice a year. By the last week of June, the second brood had grown up and left the store. The young ones grew up to join the flock of swallows that forage for insects in the open fields and roost on the wires in the busy market of Kurseong.
By August, the swallows left Kurseong, and the people of the market started bracing themselves for winter. The Kurseong market and its people wait for winter to pass and for the Barn visitors to arrive with summer.
It is really nice to see your enthusiasm in wild life still alive and kicking!!
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ReplyDeleteJust a very good and honest note.So inspiring and always your expression comes from the depth of your heart.Great documentation and so excited to found Barn Swallow in the shops of Agarwals.Thanks to them and thanks to you too for introducing Agarwals who are so kind and caring towards those lovely creation.
DeleteKingshuk and Rashmi,Santiniketan
Globally urban centers are rapidly expanding. Hence there is a pressing need to consider wildlife conservation efforts in the areas of urbanization-driven changes in the local landscape influencing species habitats.
ReplyDeleteSantosh's blog on the Barn Swallow is convincing towards broadening and gradually routing conservation efforts towards urban landscapes. Santosh's passionate bird-watching and keen observations uncovers on how Barn Swallow's wheel of life is deep-seated in unexpected socio-econo-landscapes.
Fantastic read. .The reader travels to all places and through all moments along with the author. A beautifully crafted writing. .and the pictures are sine qua non to complete the meaning of words. Santosha has an amazing talent to capture profound pictures amidst seemingly ordinary locations. I would request him to nurture his interest in photography and never let it die.
ReplyDeleteNice read. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteBarn in swedish mean child or children.
I appreciate how naturally the information flows here. It feels less like reading and more like understanding step by step. Very similar to how cleanly information was presented for Rental office space in Bangalore.
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